Peace in Our Time
by silencewillfall009
Summary: The Forerunner/Human union of the RIS rises to challenge the Citadel Council. Another superpower has risen. And they will claim their rightful place in the galaxy. Constructive criticism welcome.
1. Timeline and First Contact

**0 AFSF (After First Space Flight)**

By some miracle of coincidence, Humans and Forerunners manage to achieve space flight on the exact same day, almost down to the hour. Their methods, however, are vastly different. Humans literally launched a pod (with a human _inside)_ from a massive railgun. Forerunners, not being _as_ suicidal as humans, launch a chemically propelled rocket.

 **7 AFSF**

Humans land on their moon, and set up an interplanetary rail gun. The pods launched by the rail gun use a combination of chemical propellants and ion engines to slow down in Earth's atmosphere. The railgun is set up on a massive railway that spans the diameter of the moon, so the railgun is constantly pointing at Earth.

 **8 AFSF**

Forerunners set up their own base on their moon. Forerunners have switched to a type of hydrogen fuel that constantly burns, unique to their planet. Using heat converters, a nearly infinite energy source is discovered.

 **10 AFSF**

Forerunners notice the massive flashes of light that coincide with the moon's rail gun firing. They quickly deduct that intelligent alien life must be in the neighbouring system (then called the Contarnium system.) They attempt to communicate in any way possible. Combinations of radio signals, visual lights, and an attempt to imitate the flash of a rail gun all fail. Finally, the Forerunners literally lob a satellite at the humans. That got their attention.

 **29 AFSF**

Satellite arrives in Sol system. After humanity retrieves the satellite, peaceful images of Forerunner society are found. Scientists are shocked at the similarities between human and forerunner anatomy. They send a satellite back, filled with similar images, as well as a simple pictographic message of peace. A visual dictionary, with words connected with images are sent.

Forerunners create first AIs.

 **36 AFSF**

The Human satellite is considerably faster, arriving in the Forerunner system after only 7 years. Forerunner AIs pour over the visual dictionary, creating a simple translator.

A massive key-like object is found in the SOL system. Studying it shows there was a massive hole where the power core was presumed to be.

 **39 AFSF**

Another message from the humans is received- meeting in a location about halfway between Sol and Alpha Centauri. AIs developed independently by humans. Full citizen rights are given to AIs on both sides.

 **41 AFSF**

Travel technology on both sides have been vastly improved. The meeting commenced. The humans are surprised by the translator tech, which is shared freely by the Forerunners. The Forerunners are surprisingly open about their technology, prompting Humanity to give them blueprints to an old railgun design. A mutual alliance is made.

 **68 AFSF**

Joint science and civilian projects are common. A massive space station is built at the halfway point between Alpha Centauri and Sol. Those willing to suffer the (now) 2 month journey are usually scientists and military men, doing joint exercises. Most technology merges, with applied tech from both sides working their way to civilian life. A joint team works on creating "slipspace drives", which, in theory, could move at hundreds of light years per second.

 **87 AFSF**

Slipstream drive is tested. It made the jump from Forerunner to Human space in exactly 0.089 seconds. Forerunners and Humans migrate to their counterpart's worlds. The races grow closer. A joint military is created, as well as joint colonisation efforts.

 **92 AFSF**

6 neighboring systems colonised simultaneously. This stretches the joint navy to the absolute limit. As a result, orbital defence platforms are created, as a stopgap measure until the proper ships can arrive. These grow immensely popular, and funds are allocated to the development of more advanced ODPs.

 **96 AFSF**

The alliance is named: The Republic of Interdependent Species(RIS). First Dreadnought is created, at a massive 5 km long, it's an impressive display of power projection. 32nd world is joint colonised.

 **157 AFSF**

First contact with Citadel races.

* * *

 _ **In Citadel Navy Vessel: Manae's Flight.**_

Captain Decius Flavius, of the Turian Hierarchy, was _pissed._ Stuck on a ship, where nothing happened, in a patrol fleet, where nothing happened, patrolling a border, where _nothing happened_.

"QEC, status update?"

"Nothing to report, captain."

"Sensors?"

"Nothing here, sir"

"General status update?"

"All systems nominal, captain"

" _Well, surprise surprise",_ the captain thought.

" _Join the navy, they said. Explore the galaxy, they said. You could become a hero, they sai-"_

That was the last thing that ran through the captain's mind, before a massive wormhole appeared off the port side of his ship, and a massive, 12 km, vessel plowed through his little frigate, cutting it in half.

* * *

 _ **On board Republic of Interdependent Species Cruiser, Peace Through Sacrifice.**_

Captain Thomas Lasky slumped on the bridge of the _**Peace Through Sacrifice**_ , staring into the vastness of Slipspace. The timer on the top right of the main screen slowly ticked down the time to the destination. As it reached zero, there was the usual _thud_ of returning to real-space, and then another sound that wasn't normal- a massive boom, as well as the sound of metal tearing.

"Captain. Minor impact across the bow. Minimal damage to shields, no damage to the ship itself."

The ship's AI, Caitlin, reported.

"Appeared to be a small asteroid, or- oh, shit"

"Caitlin? Something wrong?" The captain asked.

"There appear to be 32 vessels of unidentified origin and design directly in front of our bow. Scans show the unidentified ships to be of the same material as the debris from the object we hit. I… think we might have cut one of their ships in half."

Silence fell on the bridge. The Forerunner com officer, Tranquility of Fortitude, summed it up pretty accurately in two words-

"Well, shit."

* * *

 _ **Aboard Turian Hierarchy flagship Palaven's Might**_

"Sir! Massive anomaly, port side!"

"Spirits! Something's coming through! It's massive!"

"VI reports height of… 1 kilometre! Length is 9 kilometres, and growing!

Admiral Arthcontus Revolutus listened as the horrifying reports swept in. The _**Manae's Flight**_ had been completely obliterated by the unknown Dreadnought, with seemingly no damage done to the alien vessel.

" _ **All ships, prepare firing solutions. Battle stations, prepare to engage!"**_

* * *

 _ **Republic of Interdependent Species cruiser, Peace Through Sacrifice.**_

"Sir, alien vessel has prepared firing vectors, and are about to engage"

Lasky ran his hand through his hair.

" _Of all the infinite space in the universe, I just had to land on top of that one ship, didn't I? Come in a kilometre to the left? Noo… I just had to smash that one alien… frigate? Too small to be military, must be a civilian convoy."_

"Sir?"

Caitlin's soft voice brought him back to the present.

"Hail them. Any way you could have a translator within the next 5 seconds?"

"Already hacked in, and got a copy of their language" Caitlin nonchalantly stated.

"Wait, what? I was joking!"

"I wasn't."

"Er… Captain? Sorry to interrupt, but they've accepted our hail."

"On screen."

And then it appeared on the screen...


	2. Vengeance

Author's Note:

I do apologize. This is the first "first contact" scene I've ever made, and is probably going to be laughably pathetic.

* * *

 _ **Aboard Turian Hierarchy Flagship, Palaven's Might.**_

"All ships report ready to engage, admiral"

"Prepare to fire on my command. We will make these creatures _burn_ for the lives lost! We will have vengeance for the fall-"

"Admiral! Unknown vessel is hailing us!"That threw the admiral off, if only for a second.

"On screen"

* * *

 _ **Aboard Republic of Interdependent Species cruiser, Peace Through Sacrifice.**_

The alien appeared on the main viewscreen. Looking strangely metallic, and with 2... fangs (?), on the sides of its mouth, the creature was a sight to behold. To his eternal credit, Lasky didn't flinch.

"This is Captain Thomas Lasky, of the Republic of Interdependent Species vessel, _Peace Through Sacrifice,_ representing the races of Human and Forerunner. We... sincerely apologize for any loss of life we may have caused through our... unfortunate arrival."

It was weak, and Lasky knew it. But, to be fair, how are you supposed to react when you accidentally ram an alien ship?

"This is Admiral Arthcontus Revolutus of the Turian Hierarchy. _What are you?"_

"I'm a human, and-"

"No. I meant who do you think you are? You... _apologise? 150_ lives lost... And the best you can give is an _apology? "_

"Our government can pay reparations-"

The conversation took an abrupt turn for the worse.

"You will burn! We will slaughter 10 Humans for every Turian killed! All ships, fire at will!"

The Turian admiral was practically foaming at the mouth at this point. He looked directly into the opposing captain's eyes.

"We will have vengeance for the fallen."

The connection promptly cut off.

Caitlin summed it up:

"Smooth, captain. Very smooth."

* * *

 _ **Aboard Turian Hierarchy Flagship, Palaven's Might.**_

Admiral Arthcontus was enraged. 150 lives lost, and all they got was a half hearted apology, and offers of reparations. _Reparations_ don't bring back the dead.

"Make. Them. Pay."

* * *

 _ **Deep Space, Citadel sector 309**_

For an outside observer, with no context, it could have been beautiful. Flashes of white light, coinciding with mass accelerator cannons. Blue Thranx rounds soaring across the void, to be answered by a flash of Orange hardlight shielding. The answering flashes of railguns, to be answered by matching blue shields.

Sleek, Turian frigates slipped around the sides of the Republic vessel, probing for a weak point, while the Turian cruisers and dreadnought engaged with deck mass accelerators and spinal mounted cannons.

The _**Peace Through Sacrifice**_ focused on the dreadnought, plowing through heat vents with Archer missiles, and not allowing the ship any way to release heat, effectively jamming the guns of the dreadnought, all while ignoring the frigates. That was a mistake.

3 frigates managed to slip underneath the cruiser, and began to pummel the underside with GUARDIAN lasers and small accelerator rounds. Railgun turrets began to return fire, but the softer undershields took a beating, forcing Caitlin to reroute valuable power to the bottom of the hull.

Standard procedure was clear- anything smaller than a frigate was dealt with through Archer missiles. Or torpedos. A veritable swarm launched off the port and starboard missile bays, detonating upon impact with Turian corvettes. While the GAURDIAN anti-missile system performed admirably against the ARCHERs, they didn't do shit against plasma. The torpedos literally boiled through the hull of the corvettes, kinetic barriers not recognising the superheated gas as a threat.

As a desperate move, a Turian captain rammed his corvette into the _**Peace Through Sacrifice.**_ It literally bounced off, until the captain detonated his eezo core. The massive gravitational anomalies literally ripped meters of armour plating off the RIS vessel. While internal damage was minimal, the move left the starboard side exposed, forcing Caitlin to reroute almost half the remaining energy into rebooting shields.

Suddenly, 6 more Turian ships slipped into the system, on a direct course for the **_Peace Through Sacrifice._** Caitlin smiled viciously. This was her turn.

* * *

 _ **Simultaneously, in Cyberspace.**_

Slipping quietly into the Turian's systems, the AI was impressed. While not incredibly well defended, the Turian computer systems were well organised, and expansive. The amount of work that went into designing it must have been enormous.

She paused at a file labelled "Codex". Vaguely curious, she downloaded it into a Black Box to be studied later.

Meanwhile, she found the systems directly in control of the ship, piloted by "Virtual Intelligences". Ha. "Intelligent" was a stretch.

Slipping past a virtual wall, she found the virtual intelligence in command of life support, and promptly deleted it.

The Turians were smart, they wouldn't let her do that trick again, any time soon.

* * *

Meanwhile, frigates attempted to surround the cruiser, but after performing a split second slipstream jump, the cruiser managed to get them to fire on each other. Then, the _**Peace Through Sacrifice**_ returned fire.

Rail gun rounds, despite being _massive_ (96 tons), moved at only about 90 kilometers a second. Mass accelerator rounds, despite being tiny (25 kilograms), moved at a staggering 4,000 kilometers per second. In shear amount of potential damage, the rail gun shined. However, penetration power was an advantage clearly given to the Turians.

None of this mattered when a 96 ton slug slammed into a Turian frigate, which simply detonated. Almost all the other frigates and cruisers received a similar treatment from deck mounted railguns. A desperate maneuver, by a desperate Turian captain- launching all his ordinance at a point blank range. The massive detonation reflected off the headlight barrier, slamming back into the Turian cruiser. After the light show, the _Peace Through Sacrifice's_ hardlight shield promptly flickered and died. Leaving it open to the Turian Dreadnought's one remaining deck gun. In a final act of defiance, the _**Palaven's Might**_ launched a single accelerator round, before detonating after overheating the eezo core.

The shell, moving at 4,000 kilometers a second, slammed into the hydrogen fuel cells of the _**Peace Through Sacrifice,**_. The resulting explosion tore the ship in half, before the back end (with the engines) imploded into a wormhole from the Drive core. The AI suite was located next to the Drive core. However, for an AI, time passes _incredibly_ slowly, as they watch the world in planck time, or the time it takes for light to travel 6.3631×10−34 inches. So, while the shockwave of the explosion was still reaching for the AI suite, Caitlin was compiling a report to upload to a black box (the transmitter was already destroyed), rerouting power to inertial dampers, hacking the engines of the one remaining Turian frigate to a random vector at FTL, playing a game of chess, while watching the shockwave race towards her core. When it reached her core, she had finished all her activities, other than the chess game. As it reached her core, Caitlin wanted to say a sine sort of dramatic one-liner. She settled with 2 simple words to the approaching wall of fire.

"Fuck you."

* * *

I do apologise for the crappy (and short) chapter. Just thought I'd upload before a school trip to Washington D.C. Might not be able to upload for a while. I wanted to give a bit more about Caitlin, before I killed her off. I'll try to rework the full chapter when I get back.


	3. Contemplations and the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

Remember how I said I wouldn't update for another week? Well, I lied. I just kind of spun this up while waiting in an airport, and though I might as well post it. It's really rough, and is probably filled with inaccuracies. Feel free to give me proper info in the reviews!

* * *

 _ **Forerunner home planet, Solace. Sol embassy.**_

Admiral Steven Hackett, of Sol's 5th fleet, was worried. Not about normal issues, like how there was a good chance his forerunner secretary was in a relationship with one of his marines, or the fact that almost half his marine battalion had food poisoning from a bad forerunner restaurant. No, he was worried about how an entire cruiser, filled with 4,500 good naval personnel, managed to disappear without a trace. The ship's patrol course spanned about 30 light years, making scanning at sublight a slow, tedious affair.

A sudden shout shocked him out of his contemplations.

"Admiral! Good news and bad news: Good news, most of the battalion that had the food poisoning has been treated! Bad news... We've found the cruiser.

* * *

 _ **Citadel Council Chambers**_

"This is... most worrying."

Asari councillor Tevos stated.

Councillor Spararius snorted.

"Understatement of the year."

They watched the video replay again, of the battle group engaging the unknown vessel, and the subsequent destruction of said battlegroup. The fate of the reinforcing Turian cruisers was the most pressing issue. An outside force managed to force all 6 of the cruisers to vent their internal atmospheres, then proceeded to crash the cruisers into each other, before detonating all of their cores at once. This spoke of several things:

A) Advanced hacking abilities, able to overcome top of the line, battle VIs.

B) The need to showcase what the aliens could do, without even firing weapons.

C) Possible use of AIs.

All of these were potentially highly problematic to the Citadel Council. While they were fairly sure the aliens (Republic of Interdependent Species?) did not destroy the _**Manae's Flight**_ on purpose, the effect of their blunder was fairly obvious. The destruction of their ship, as well as that of the opposing battlegroup.

Then, there was the obvious. It was _massive._ The length was a fourth if the length of the Citadel!

Tevos stared at the image once again.

"How did they manage to build this monstrosity? It's massive, wouldn't the element zero constraints limit its size?"

The salarian councillor replied:

"Not a trace of eezo was found. Just radiation."

"Where is the vessel now?"

"Unknown. The remaining frigate was hacked, and forced to jump to a random location. We lost track of it after that. STG sent a probe to the location of the skirmish, and found nothing but dust and echos. Both halves of the alien vessel have been removed. "

"Looks like their governing body works fast. Can we track them?"

"The only trace that they were ever there was the wreckage of our ships, and a burst of radiation."

"Can we go back to the fact that there was _no_ element zero on the vessels?"

"Wait. Radiation? No element zero?" Tevos was vaguely curious.

"Not a trace. Must be more primitive than we thought."

Sparatus spat in contempt.

"They could have travel tech without eezo-"

"Impossible. All galactic travel relies on eezo. Their home world must be close by, to have traveled here without FTL. Scan local systems, find them, and exact vengeance."

Sparatus was set.

"I concur. We cannot appear weak in the face of this new threat. Bring a suppression fleet, and bring justice to these beings." Einstan interjected.

"So it is decided."

* * *

 _ **Forerunner home planet, Solace. Sol embassy.**_

They certainly did find the cruiser. Or, at least, they found half of it. The other half was scattered around in orbit. The front half was still intact, with a black box, and a surprising amount of not-dead crew on board.

When the Republic engineers opened the black box, they found what could only be described as a "shitstorm". Mountains of data, numerous recordings from external cameras, thorough examinations of alien vessels, the whole works. The recordings proved to be invaluable to explain what had happened. A good portion of the crew in the bow area survived. Combined human testimony and recordings gave a fairly clear picture of what happened.

And now, Admiral Hackett had to deal with the media going apeshit over the entire thing. He didn't even now how the recordings got into the hands of the press. Debates were already starting about who's fault the entire thing was, the RIS, or the "Turian Hierarchy". While the majority agreed that the RIS made a mistake and the Turians overreacted, many thought that it was the RIS's fault, as they were the ones to ram the Turian ship in the first place. This all somehow lead to Admiral Hackett being forced to answer at least 3 questions from public pressure. And he was going to do the bare minimum.

"Alright, I have time for 3 questions!"

He pointed to a Forerunner reporter

"Admiral, how will we respond to this new threat? Do you have any idea how the aliens will respond?"

"That counts as 2. Number one, we're working on it. As for number 2, I have no idea. They are aliens, after all."

He pointed at another person:

"How do you think we stack up against these "Turians?"

"You've all seen the recordings. How many of their ships it took to destroy our cruiser. Figure it out"

* * *

 ** _Deep space, Citadel sector 309_**

The STG drone watched as a vessel, 16 kilometres in length, dropped into the system, out of a hole th a t, under proper rules of physics, never should have existed. The drone watched as the vessel dropped a probe of its own, then opened another portal. While the ship left, the STG drone fired a single tracking device onto the hull of the retreating dreadnought.

* * *

 _ **Citadel Council Chambers**_

"Well... we found them."

Tevos blandly stated, as she stared at the galaxy map, relays included.

The STG tracking round had worked spectacularly well. They had found the location of the alien species. There was just one, glaring problem.

"Where the hell are the relays?!"

Councillor Sparatus was currently raging against the wall. It could have been vaguely amusing, if not given the circumstances.

Einstan's behavior was directly at odds with Sparatus's.

"Obviously don't rely on relays or element zero. Antimatter? Perhaps. Traditional FTL travel out of the question, used portal system out of sector 309. Wormholes? Possible. But how to choose location? Fascinating. Would wish to learn from RIS"

"Not now, Einstan. We are at war. Find a way to-"

Suddenly, a new relay came online. Almost right next to the location of the RIS dreadnought.

"Well... that solves our problems."

"Alert the fleets. They move NOW."

* * *

 _ **Sol System, orbiting Jupiter. Ship RIS Independently Confirmed**_

Dr. Mckayla Clarke was inwardly ecstatic. Sure, outwardly, she looked calm and collected, but that was bullshit, and everyone around her could see that. They managed to replicate the power core of the giant-key object orbiting Jupiter. A 50,000 year old machine. No one had been able to ascertain it's purpose- deep scans didn't come through, attempts at cutting through the hull resulted in some slightly singed metal. It took years to convince the Republic to let them activate the machine, but it was the moment of truth.

As the new core was inserted, the center of the machine glowed blue.

"Amazing. Gravitational fluctuations around the object reaching as far as 9 light-hours. Perhaps a gravity or mass manipulator?"

The Forerunner scientist, Ever Inquisitive, was staring at the data flashing by.

"Seems to create mass-less corridor. Perhaps travel technology? Would work about as fast as slipspace, if not slightly faster."

She continued.

"It's not practical on a ship-scale level though. The power requirements are much too large."

"Perhaps. We could very well use it to enhance our weapons, though the effect on slipspace could be-"

McKayla was cut off, as the sensor officer shouted;

"Power surge, coming from the key! Something's emerging!"

The key spat out a frigate, of the same design engaged by the _**Peace Through Sacrifice.**_ Then, another appeared. And another. The key kept spitting out ships, until the alien vessels numbered at over 600.

"RIS dreadnought, surrender, and prepare to be boarded."

* * *

 _ **Aboard research vessel RIS Independently Confirmed.**_

To say Captain Jason McGraw was confused would be an understatement.

"Com, confirm he said dreadnought?"

"It's in the transcript Captain, he said it clear as day."

The Captain contemplated this.

"Send a message to Earth, tell them to shore up Earth's defences, and send help if they can. Then hail the largest ship."

The officer nodded his assent. The Turian's face appears on screen.

"Decided to surrender yet captain?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken. This is a research vessel, the RIS Independently Confirmed, on a scientific-"

"Ha! I see through your lies, human. Who would make a 2 kilometer vessel for anything other than war?"

It was at this moment, when the Captain noticed that none of the opposing ships were larger than 3 kilometers, in fact, only one actually reached 2 kilometers.

"Erm... us?"

The Turian captain took the time to be amused. Then, several things happened at once. The Turian shouted;

"All ships, fire at will!"

At the same time, a transmission from friendly channels came through;

"RIS Independently Confirmed, prepare to receive assistance.

* * *

 _ **Sol System, orbiting Jupiter**_

4 holes in the universe were ripped open, as 3 corvettes and a frigate slammed into existence next to the _**Independently Confirmed.**_ As this happened, all the Turian ships fired at once. A corvette was instantly annihilated, as thousands of rounds moving at relativistic speeds slammed into its shields. Immediately, all the RIS vessels split off, while the _**Independently Confirmed**_ made it's escape.

The frigate deployed was very unique. It had the ability to launch its entry slipstream portal to a chosen location, as opposed to simply opening it in front of the nose. It used this to maximum effect, launching portals directly in front of Turian vessels, then snapping them closed as the ships were halfway through, slicing the ship in half. It also deployed portals directly in front of Turian ships, and opening another directly against the hull of another, ramming the ships against each other.

The corvettes were far more conventional, using forerunner designed directed energy weapons, and plasma. Unfortunately, they were too small for a RIS standard MAC gun, measuring only 600 meters long. Speed and manuverability were its best friends,. Trusting these traits, corvettes had limited shielding, and no armour. There was a major flaw in this design, however. They were fast and manuverable, when compared to _human_ ships. Citadel vessels were far faster at sublight, and proved to be more than a match for the (comparatively) small human vessels. They were quickly overwhelmed, leaving the frigate to face the fleet alone. This captain tried to slip away through a portal, but was ultimately destroyed when a hail of mass accelerator rounds overloaded it's shields, and smashed through the frigate's engine.

The fleet, now numbering at 5,987, soared through the void, heading for the closest garden world.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

That's right, I did a _Mass Effect: The First War_ reference. I was contemplating splitting this into 2 chapters, but that would be rather short. This is also going to be revamped- as I stated earlier, I'm doing this all in SF airport.

* * *

 **Author's note within an authors note**

First off, this is some inception level crap, right here. Second off, I've heard some complaints about how the Forerunners were a tier one society, where the fortress ships were, etc. While this may be true, they weren't a tier one society _at this point in time._ Here, they're only a hundred years off the ground. It's actually a miracle they got how much they have at this point in time. They're still, by all accounts, a relatively young race. But don't worry, there might be a "project" the forerunners are working on. A big project. That may or may not make an appearance.


	4. The Beginning

**_Author's Note_**

I did say I would update soon, didn't I? Maybe not 19 hours soon, but I had this chapter for a little bit. This chapter is rather short, just a simple build up. The climax of this battle, both in space and on the ground is a little later. Enjoy!

* * *

 _ **High Earth Orbit, Sol System**_

Earth was ready as it ever could be. 4 fleets had been recalled to earth, and the Forerunners deployed a good portion of the Solace defence fleet from Forerunner space. 12 battle groups, focused around 12 dreadnoughts waited silently around Earth. The number of ships reached 468 vessels. And they were all staring menacing at the exact location the Turians dropped out of FTL.

 _ **Turian Vessel: Indomitable**_

Admiral Varius Artilius, of the newly formed suppression fleet, did not like the look of things. Perhaps he had every single Dreadnought made by the Turians in his fleet. Maybe he had a full third more ships than the Humans. He even had weaponry designed specifically for the RIS. He did not, however, have an 18 kilometre long Dreadnought. He certainly did not have 12 of them.

"Sir! We have a transmission from the RIS!"

"On screen."

What appeared was not what he expected. It was a simple countdown timer, starting from 3.

3…

2…

1…

At this point, every single RIS vessel, and every single orbital defence platform, on or around earth fired.

 _ **High Orbit Around Earth, Sol System**_

The flashes lit the area around Earth like the Fourth of July. A big Fourth of July. In space.

While human cruiser and Dreadnought fire was impressive, one object stole the show. The Turians had mistaken it for a skyscraper on Luna. It wasn't. It was the planetary railgun, set up over a hundred years earlier. And it still worked.

With a resounding Boom, a Turian cruiser erupted into flames. The massive cannon reoriented itself, and fired again on a frigate formation. The round flew straight through 6 frigates. The Turians sent a frigate Wolfpack to destroy the railgun. 36 frigates went to confront the gun. 8 came back.

It was time the Turians returned fire. After seeing how well the detonation of eezo cores were against the "Peace Through Sacrifice", the Salarians quickly rushed a new type of missile through development. It had decommissioned drive cores in the warhead, designed to detonate upon impact, or its destruction.

The Turians launched the missiles in swarms, not completely trusting the new tech.

They proved to be immensely effective. Because shields had absolutely no effect on gravity, the warheads ripped meters of armour off of the Human warships, outright destroying several. They even managed to fatally damage a heavy cruiser.

Then, the Humans adapted, spacing out battlegroups to minimise the area of effect for the missile's detonation. This was exactly what the Turians wanted.

Exploiting the sudden gap in defences, hundreds of Turian troop transports deployed from their respective dreadnoughts and cruisers. While many transports did not make it through the human's stretched defensive line, almost 700 transports, carrying over 20 troops each, made it into Earth's atmosphere. They all deployed into the region of "London"


	5. Things! Excitement!

**Battle of Earth, High Geosynchronous Orbit**

The resistance put up was altogether pathetic. Human Dreadnoughts spat glowing balls of superheated death at the Council ships, cracking them like eggs, boiling the crew alive. Point Defence turrets shred the what little shuttlecraft and gunships the Turians had. The Council vessels, infinitesimally small when compared to Humanity's dreadnoughts, were crushed underfoot like bugs.

But the Council more secret weapons. But they weren't desperate enough to use them. _Yet._

* * *

 **London, England**

In- atmosphere was an entirely different matter. Turian landing craft were swarming the city. No opposing flak fire met them, as the Humans had no time to set up gun positions, or mobilise their armies. So, it was up to police and first responders to hold the line.

 **London Clock tower, "Big Ben"**

The SOC19 sniper sighted down his scope, looking for another one of the damn buggers.

 _(He looks important)_

 _ ***Crack***_

 _(Is that an officer?)_

 _ ***Crack***_

 _(Not anymore.)_

 _(That looks like an engine. Can I blow it up?)_

 _ ***Crack***_

 _(Guess not. I'll settle for killing the gunner)_

 _ ***Crack***_

 _(What the fuck is with that magic blue chick? Can I kill her?)_

 _ ***Crack***_

 _(Well she died easily.)_

Wave after wave of Turians came crawling into the square, and died on his bullets. It was odd that nobody had called any air support or artillery on his position.

 ***Crack***

 _(Damn, there's a lot of them)_

Suddenly, with a resounding _BOOM_ shook the square, and waves of dust covered the square. When it cleared, there was one shape in the middle of the square. It was… an APC?

 _(Who the hell takes the time to drop an APC from orbit?)_

The answer was, apparently, the Turians. As the Mako sprang to life, it trained its main cannon on the clock tower.

( _Shit-)_

The top of the tower collapsed in on itself, shredded by the continuous fire of the cannon, and the secondary machine gun.

* * *

 **RIS Engagement Area 16, Southeast Apartment Block, designated ASE106**

"Left clear!"

"Right clear!"

"All clear!"

SOC19 squad Bravo cleared the last of the buildings of Engagement Area 16. Quietly filing out of the building, Bravo took a moment to catch their breaths, before a particularly brave (or insubordinate) officer found the need to make a comment on the Squad Leader's affinity for "close quarters combat".

"Sir, I swear to god, if you'd let that bug-eyed bastard any closer, you could have been kissing"

Another squad member chimed in-

"Well, you know what they say about kissing death…"

Bravo Squad leader looked over.

"What do they say?"

"Erm… I don't actually know. It's a saying somewhere, right?"

"Meh. Probably."

A radio screeched out a signal, before a voice came to life.

"This is Overwatch. Not to interrupt your weird-ass intersquad mating rituals-"

"Hey!"

"- but you've got incoming. Northwest, point 34 degrees. Looks like some sort of hunter-killer pair, only 2 hostiles. You are cleared to engage, then to proceed with your… activities"

The muffled curses to that particular Overwatch operator were promptly ignored.

* * *

 **Turian Zone of Engagement F-031, Human city of "London"**

The 2 krogan mercenaries currently meandering towards Bravo squad were not exactly subtle. Nor, did they need to be. They were krogan, after all.

Their conversation consisted of-

"I'm hungry."

"I know."

"We should eat something."

"We should."

"The turians don't feed us enough"

"They don't."

"Or pay us enough."

"I know."

"I'm still hungry."

"I know."

Their intense debates and lively discussions were interrupted by Bravo Squad:

"Hostiles in sight! Engaging targets!"

The Krogan response to the sudden appearance of Bravo squad was a maniacal look to each other before saying in unison-

"Food."

"...Shit"

* * *

 **A/N: _Short Chapter today. I think I'm going to have more consistent updates- perhaps weekly, or monthly. Sorry for the absence just a family trip, and some other stuff to take care of._**


	6. Watch them burn

Surprise Surprise guys, I'm Back! With a new chapter!

* * *

 _ **High Earth Orbit, Sol System**_

The Forerunners arrival into the system was incredibly dramatic, as they liked it to be. Hundreds of slipspace portals opened, with physics defying _wrongness_ distorting the space around the arrival point. The fleet was massive. There was no way around that. The Humans, while formidable, were not entirely militaristic. The Forerunners had no such constraints. A full 20 dreadnoughts had been deployed to smash the turian siege. Every single dreadnought that the Forerunners had was in Human space. And they came with _thunder._

 _ **Interplanetary Space, Sol System**_

The Forerunner fleet slammed into the Turians' left flank, and driving through the ships like a hot knife through butter. The turian ships turned to engage, but were shattered under the impact of masses of Forerunner ships. It was like a dam burst- unstoppable. The ships poured from slipspace portals, and completely and utterly crushed any resistance in the area.

Flashes in space signaled where the dreadnoughts fired, fighters like pinpricks of light against the dark backdrop of space. The Turian vessels were in complete disarray, some even crashing into each other, as they turned to engage.

In cyberspace, AIs slipped into Turian systems, and wrecked havoc on Turian systems, from thruster control, to navigaton, to the food dispensers. Anything to make the Turians die faster and harder.

 _ **Turian Capital Ship "Indomitable"**_

The new fleet had come out of nowhere, and were currently burning through his left flank, making a beeline for his command ship. The new vessels were utterly destroying what ships had been left to guard what was regarded as an unimportant zone of engagement. And Admiral Varius Artilius knew the game was almost up. His fleet was caught in a classic hammer and anvil tactic, and there was very little he could do but watch his fleet burn below him.

"Transmission incoming from the Council!"

"Patch it through."

A window popped up on his console.

"Councillor Sparatus. The game is up. We are done here."

"You're not done yet, Admiral. Hold the line, we're sending reinforcements."

The admiral gave a hollow laugh.

"Reinforcements? What reinforcements? Don't waste more lives for this endeavour."

"The council has more resources than you can possibly imagine, Admiral. Hold the line."

"With what? The broken shells of our ships? Our bodies? Our reinforcements' bodies?"

"If you must, admiral. You know not of these new creatures."

"New creatures?"

Sparatus cut the transmission.

The admiral turned abruptly from the console to address the crew;

"Move a corvette to the relay. Have them send whatever reinforcements the council has back, we're not wasting any more lives for this."

The crew hesitated, but ultimately followed orders. Until the reinforcements actually arrived, and every single being in the system stood still in shock.

 _ **RIS Dreadnought "Burning Flame"**_

"TARGETS BEARING DOWN ON THE LEFT"

"Moving raptor squads to intercept. Squads 3-4 bearing down, point 72."

"Point 72, roger."

"Targets engaging on the left, moving frigates " _Light of Dawn_ " and " _Hell or High Water"_ to reinforce."

" _Hell or High Water_ " is currently engaged in sector 4 Beta Kilo. Moving " _Carl Sagan"_ and " _Eternal Fire_ " to compensate.

The CIC of the RIS dreadnought was lit with flashes of explosions, and glowing consoles. Captain Jonathan Walker was currently hashing out plans with "Sunlit Walker", the annoyingly loud Forerunner. Apparently he was some sort of high level intelligence operative, but the Captain was not seeing it.

"We can bring Dreadnought group 7 in support the drive on the left flank."

"Ah, my good sir, but that would expose the 4th scout flotilla to those dreadnoughts! Which is something nobody wants, of course. Well, maybe the Turians want it, but no one else. Really that would be a disaster that could completely destabilize the right-"

"Yeah, I got the point by the third sentence. We hold group 7 in reserve, and push forwards with-"

"Captain! New contacts by the fork!"

"Turian reinforcements?"

"...I don't know Captain. Unknown design, but they're not to element-zero scale. Larger. Much larger. Larger than our own."

"How large?"

"Smallest contact 800 metres, largest contact… I think I have a sensor glitch sir."

"These things are brand new ensign, they _don't get_ glitches. Give me the size."

"...Largest contact 75 kilometres, sir."

"Sorry ensign, maybe the sensors do have a glitch."

The resident AI appeared with a *pop*.

"Sensor data is accurate, and independently confirmed. Largest ship is 75 kilometres long."

"Is this another race?"

"Design is not consistent with any known species. Very likely that this is something new."

That statement was very, very true. The massive ship was smooth and curved, bulbous lines curving around a central cylinder, with god-knows-what inside. A massive protrusion at what was presumably the top of the ship held what appeared to be some sort of satellite dish. That designed followed through with almost every single new contact, from the massive dreadnought, to the miniscule fighters.

The captain glanced at Sunlit Walker, who, up to this point, had been staring at the image for about 2 minutes.

"Well operative? What do you think?"

The forerunner shook his head, and glanced again. Finally, he breathed,

" _Precursor."_

 _ **RIS Capital Ship "Stars and Shadows"**_

Chaos reigned on the capital ship of the Forerunner 6th fleet.

"Someone hail that ship!"

"New contacts! Thousands of them!"

"They're pouring through the relay!"

Admiral Kinetic Fire (which, by both Forerunner and human standards, was an awesome name), called to his panicking crew;

"Hail the largest vessel! Establish some sort of contact!"

As the transmission loaded up, a face appeared. An insectoid being stared back.

"This is Admiral Kinetic Fire, of the Forerunner 6th fleet. You are entering a combat zone, and are advised to leave, until further contact can be established."

The being stared back in seeming disgust, and replied in a grating voice.

"You children have the audacity to command us? Your infinite betters? Do you not remember who created you? Fools, all of you."

The transmission cut off with a start.

Silence reigned on the bridge.

Then, a console started beeping. Then another. And another.

"Sir unknowns have opened fire on all fronts!"

"System failures, all across the board!"

"Human dreadnoughts _Imperator_ and _Invincible_ are both disabled!"

"The right flank is collapsing!"

"Humans are bringing up dreadnoughts to face the newcomers!"

"The rest of the sixth fleet is moving to engage!"

"Admiral! How do we proceed?"

Admiral "Kay-Ef", as he was affectionately called by the crew, was an old man. By both Forerunner and Human standards, he was well past his prime. He served in almost every single war from the unification wars on Solace to the short but brutal insurrections on Eden Prime. He destroyed fleets with flotillas, flotillas with corvettes, and corvettes with handguns. He was, quite literally, what every young child in the Forerunner Ecumen wanted to grow up to be. And he was _pissed._

The admiral turned to face the crew.

"Bring us to knife fighting ranges, and power up the broadside railguns. Signal the _Hammer of Dawn_ and _Death from Above_ to follow us in "

He turned back towards the holomap.

"We're bringing down the fucker."

* * *

And with that, we're out! Seeya.


End file.
